THE MILITARY WRITINGS OF LEON TROTSKY
Volume 3: 1920

The War with Poland

A Necessary Correction

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The People’s Commissariat for Military Affairs considers it necessary to deny a number of erroneous and obviously malicious reports which have been put about by West-European and American bourgeois agencies regarding the organisation of the command in our armies on the Polish front.

It has been frequently reported abroad that command in the war against the Poles is being exercised by the former Supreme Commander-in-Chief A.A. Brusiov. This report is completely false. The front against Poland is divided into a Western front and a South-Western front. The armies of the Western front are commanded by Comrade Tukhachevsky. In the old army he held the rank of Lieutenant. In the Red Army he commanded the First Army in the fighting against Kolchak, the Eighth Army in the fighting against Denikin, then the Fifth Army in the fighting against Koichak, and the South-Eastern front in the fighting against Denikin. The operations conducted by Comrade Tukhachevsky against both Denikin and Kolchak ended in their complete defeat. Comrade Tukhachevsky is 27 years old. He has been a member of the Communist Party since the beginning of the revolution.

The South-Western front is commanded by Comrade Yegorov. In the old army he held the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel and commanded a regiment. In the Red Army Comrade Yegorov commanded the Tenth Army, against Denikin, was wounded in action, and, after recovering, received the command of the Fourteenth Army, and subsequently of the armies of the South-Western front. Comrade Yegorov, who was a Left Socialist-Revolutionary when the revolution began, has been for the last two years a member of the Communist Party.

The French press, and the foreign press generally, refer to the commander of our cavalry army as General Budyonny. Although Comrade Budyonny has beaten and is beating Russian, Polish and French generals he is himself a former NCO, and a member of the Communist Party.

Overall command of all the armed forces of the Republic, and so of the armies of the Western and South-Western fronts, is exercised by Commander-in-Chief S.S. Kamenev, with P.P. Lebedev as his Chief-of-Staff.

Reports that in the Red units in certain sectors commands are given in the German language are the purest invention. There is not a single German officer in all our armies. Needless to say, the ranks of the Red forces are open to volunteers of all nations who see it as their duty to fight for the cause of communism against imperialist aggression.